The present invention relates to a sample mounting system and one particularly adapted for use in mounting printed circuit board coupons for polishing.
Printed circuit board coupons with precisely located holes for mounting the coupons such that test through holes can be polished are described in military specification MIL-STD-275 and are well-known. In order to mount a plurality of these coupons simultaneously for inspection and therefore, increase the number of printed circuit board coupons that can be inspected in a given time, a separate mold form has been provided and is generally of truncated conical shape such that a plurality of coupons can be molded and fixed in position in such mold. The mold is subsequently positioned in a specimen polisher disk. Such a system is commercially available from Struers Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio and involves a multiple step molding process and subsequently, placing the molded form containing the coupons into a polishing disk which employs O-rings to hold the mold forms in place. The separate placement of the molded form in the sample holding disk can lead to inaccuracies in depth of polishing since the coupons may not be accurately positioned with respect to the polishing surface as controlled by carbide tipped stops. Also, the separate molding and subsequent mounting of the molded shape in the specimen holding disk requires additional manual labor, slowing the overall sample inspection process.